What is our experience of life? How do we create that experience? What are we here for? How should we live our lives?
These are questions that many of us ponder throughout our lives. Here, my aim is to provide some insights and answers to those questions.
Let’s start with some general thoughts about life and some information on how we create our experience of life.
“The world is what you think it is.” –Serge Kahili King
How Do We Create Our Experience of Life?
Our experience of life on Earth is shaped by a dynamic interplay of internal and external factors, involving the mind, body, environment, and our relationships with others. Here’s a breakdown of how this process works:
1. Perception: Interpreting Reality
Sensory Input: We perceive the world through our five senses — visual (sight), auditory (sound), kinesthetic (tactile), gustatory (taste), and olfactory (smell). These senses provide raw data about our surroundings.
Filters of Perception: Our brains filter this sensory data through past experiences, beliefs, and cultural conditioning, among other things. Two people can experience the same event but interpret it differently based on their unique filters.
2. Thought: Constructing Meaning
Internal Narratives and Images: Thoughts are like the stories we tell ourselves about what is happening. They shape our understanding of events, turning raw sensory data into meaning.
Beliefs and Assumptions: Deep-seated beliefs influence how we think about life, shaping our expectations and interpretations of the world.
3. Emotions: Adding Depth to Experience
Emotional Responses: Emotions arise as a reaction to our thoughts, perceptions, and experiences. For instance, if you interpret a situation as threatening, you may feel fear.
Emotional Memory: Past emotional experiences influence how we respond to similar situations in the future, reinforcing patterns of feeling and reacting.
4. Action: Interacting with the World
Behavioral Choices: The way we act shapes our experiences. For instance, responding with curiosity versus defensiveness can create entirely different outcomes in a situation.
Habits and Practices: Repeated behaviors become habits, which create a framework for how we live day-to-day.
5. Environment: Shaping Context
Physical Environment: Where you live, your surroundings, and the people around you play a significant role in shaping your experience of life.
Cultural and Social Influences: Societal norms and cultural values influence how we perceive and respond to life events.
6. Awareness and Consciousness: Shaping Perception
Awareness and Attention: Where you focus your attention determines what you notice and how you interpret it. Practicing meditation can help you become more aware of how you’re creating your experience.
Choice and Intention: With awareness, you can consciously choose how to respond rather than reacting automatically.
7. Meaning and Purpose: The Lens of Life
Values and Goals: What you value and aim for in life shapes how you experience events. For instance, someone who values personal growth might view challenges as opportunities rather than setbacks.
Sense of Purpose: Having a sense of meaning or purpose can color life with greater satisfaction and fulfillment.
8. The Feedback Loop: Self-Reinforcing Patterns
Thought-Emotion-Action Cycle: Our thoughts influence our emotions, which drive our actions, which in turn shape our experiences and reinforce our beliefs. This creates a continuous loop of experience.
Neuroplasticity: The brain’s ability to rewire itself means that we can intentionally reshape our experiences by cultivating new thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
“We as human beings do not operate directly on the world. Each of us creates a representation of the world in which we live. That is, we create a map or model which we use to generate our behavior. Our representation of the world determines to a large degree what our experience of the world will be, how we will perceive the world, what choices we will see available to us as we live in the world.” -Richard Bandler and Owen Fitzpatrick
We all experience, perceive, and interpret the world and its events based on our mind’s proclivity to explain via mentalization and interpretations of perceived data. This process results in what is best described as the presumption that the perceived/experienced world represent ‘reality’. In other words, we think that what we are perceiving is the reality when, in fact, what we perceive is our mind’s interpretation – kind of its ‘best guess’ – of the reality.
So, our experience of life is not just about what happens to us but how we interpret, feel, and respond to those events. By cultivating self-awareness, questioning and re-shaping limiting beliefs, and intentionally focusing on growth and gratitude, we can shape a richer, more fulfilling experience of life.
